Prayer and Talking to God

Talking with grandchildren on the phone gave me a new insight into prayer. When talking to the youngest children, the adult has to do all the work, and the child usually answers in one-word answers, “uh huh” and the like. One doesn’t even know if the child will remember the conversation. In the middle years, the child talks more, but the talk is choppy and one sided. Its usually a couple sentences total. There is perhaps a thank you or two for gifts, a word or two of news, a request or two and they’re off. This age child rarely takes time or has the interest to hear anything you want to say to them. With older children, it may be at last possible to have a real conversation. In real conversation, information is traveling both ways. In addition, the thoughts, feelings, opinions and hopes of each side is exchanged. With teens, the interest in conversation with a grandparent is gone again, in most cases. Teens care about their own interests and those of their friendship circle. Adults are irrelevant.

Thinking about this, I realized, God’s children react in pretty much the same ways with Him. Some of his children hear His Word or feel his little nudges and respond with “uh huh”. Some are hurried, saying only the required thanks and asking for things. Some find God irrelevant because the only really important thing in their lives is their own agenda. Finally, there are some who care to have a real conversation with God. These are the ones who are honest before God about their dreams and their feelings. These also want to know what God thinks, prefers, cares about and desires. Where am I in my conversational relationship with God? I hope most of the time, I care about the relationship enough to want honest, feeling, two-way conversation with Him.